The chief executives of FTSE 100 companies were paid almost 183 times more than the average U.K. worker last year, according to figures released today.
Data from the High Pay Centre says that the average FTSE 100 CEO earned around £4.96 million in 2014, in comparison to the £27,195 earned by the average full-time employee.
The High Pay Centre is a think tank set up to look at the widening income disparity at British companies. They highlighted the fact that the gap is much bigger than in 2010, when CEOs earned 160 times more than the average worker.
Deborah Hargreaves, the director of the High Pay Centre, said in a statement that:
“Pay packages of this size go far beyond what is sensible or necessary to reward and inspire top executives. It’s more likely that corporate governance structures in the U.K. are riddled with glaring weaknesses and conflicts of interest.”
Last year, investors at both Burberry and WPP urged FTSE CEOs to reduce the size of their pay packets. However, the High Pay Centre report noted that the average shareholder vote against pay awards across the FTSE-100 was just 6.4 percent.
